Raising money for charity

(You could also teach ‘to
browse’) 
5. to shoplift
I. to steal something from a shop 
6. to shop someone
B. to tell the police that someone has
committed a crime 
7. to be all over the shop
C. to be disorganised and confused 
8. to be like a bull in a china shop 
D. to rush around and knock things over 
9. to go on a shopping spree
E. to buy many things (often without thinking 
too much about the cost) 

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Lesson plan 
|
 
Shopping is
 
www.teachingenglish.org.uk
GREAT
© British Council 2012 
 
Question 2 
There are two pre-reading gist tasks to encourage students to contextualise the text before 
they work on a more detailed vocabulary analysis. 
 
Question 3 
Answers 
When I was at university in London, I used to love to pop into town on a Saturday afternoon 
and take a break from talking shop with my classmates. Unfortunately, since I was a student 
and I had to be careful with my money, I usually ended up window shopping. If, on the odd 
occasion, I did need to buy something, I had to shop around and went all over the shop to 
find the best deal.
I have my first job now and don’t live in London anymore. When I get the chance to go back, 
I usually go on a shopping spree and shop until I drop. It’s all very exciting but I am like a bull 
in a china shop as I try to find what I’m looking for.
Differentiation 
In order to differentiate the task for higher-level students, the teacher could provide this 
version of the text instead as it does not indicate which phrases should be replaced. 
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 
When I was at university in London, I used to love to pop into town on a Saturday afternoon 
and take a break from discussing work with my classmates. Unfortunately, since I was a 
student and I had to be careful with my money, I usually ended up just looking. If, on the odd 
occasion, I did need to buy something, I had to search for the best price and went around in 
a panic to find the best deal.
I have my first job now and don’t live in London anymore. When I get the chance to go back, 
I usually buy lots of things and carry on shopping until I am exhausted. It’s all very exciting 
but I rush around and knock things over as I try to find what I’m looking for.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 
Question 4 
The two unused idioms are: 
 
o
To shop someone 
o
To 
shoplift 
An example of a sentence that the students might create: “The lady saw the man shoplift so 
she shopped him to the police.”